A2ES 2016

Arts to End Slavery is here once again! Our last project in 2015 was a big success and we are still overwhelmed with the reception that we got. In our three month exhibition last year, hundreds of people got to see the amazing art pieces that our local artists created around the theme of human trafficking. The exhibitions were held in four different galleries in the city of Nairobi and the reception was great. On top of that, we were also invited by IGAD to take the art to an international conference in Djibouti.

This year our theme will focus on the experiences of human trafficking. The exhibition will be held in two different locations in Nairobi and both exhibitions will be held for two weeks. The launch of the exhibition will be on the 30th of July. This day is also the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons which makes it a perfect day to launch our exhibition to the public in Nairobi.

In addition to the exhibitions in Nairobi, we are also planning to take the art to Kisumu and Mombasa. This extension of the exhibition will spread the awareness to both coastal and inland areas. We have also plans to have smaller art events in the grassroots level. The idea is to take the art of local artists to informal settlements to raise awareness among people living there. This is very important since these are a areas where human trafficking is widespread.

The effects of art in fighting against human trafficking are various. It is a way to share information about different aspect of human trafficking, to reach people that other routes of information won’t otherwise reach, to empower the people being human trafficked now or before, it makes people think, have discussions and help them to question things taken granted before.

As in our last year’s exhibition, this year we will have art pieces from local artists including painters, photographers, musicians and poets. This year we also hope to have video installations. In our 2016 exhibition we will work in partnership with PAWA254 which is an organization that works through using art to create social change. We are eager to see what great things we get to do together with them! The planning of the project is now at its beginning stage and we are excited to start taking this projects further again. At the moment we are in the process of recruiting artists for the project and we will start having meeting with them soon. The search for possible venues is also one of our next steps towards creating a great exhibition.